How a Seattle high school student is shining a spotlight on emissions from private jets

Akash Shendure bikes or rides the bus to school with the climate in mind. But the Seattle-area high school student also wants to draw attention to the carbon-intensive commutes of those who travel in private jets.

Shendure created a website called Climate Jets last month, which lays out the estimated 2022 carbon emissions of dozens of private jets.

He spoke with CBC’s What On Earth about how he put together the data for the website and what he hopes to accomplish with it. 

How did you decide to create the Climate Jet website?

I saw the tracking that was done for [the ElonJet Twitter account], and based on that I started looking into the data and combining it with other data sources I found online. And I was really just kind of following the trail of data and the results really surprised me.

And so I decided to combine it with some of my interests in graphic design and turn it into a website.

How surprised were you by what you found?

I was quite surprised, not just because the emissions were so high, but also just because I couldn’t find that data elsewhere online. It took me about a month to finish this project but overall the data analysis was not very difficult. So I was surprised to see that it wasn’t already out there.

How difficult was it to track down all of the details you needed?

One of the aspects that was more difficult was finding the emissions for each different jet model. And so to find that data, because it varies significantly from jet to jet, I had to reach out to a private company and request the data for educational purposes.

They sent it to me, which was really nice of them. That was one of the key data sources that I needed.

What impact are you hoping to have by sharing all of this information?

My hope is that it spreads awareness for the disparity in emissions [between] the ultra rich and your average American, or people around the world. Americans are some of the highest emitters already.

So my hope is that people know how much the rich emit and I hope that they are inspired to take some action, be that what it is.

What kind of response have you had to it so far?

I’ve been getting a lot of emails, especially from other Seattleites, just commending me for creating the website. And I’ve heard a lot of people involved in the climate movement sympathizing with the message.

We reached out to a couple of the jet owners on your website. A spokesperson for Jeff Bezos said he uses sustainable aviation fuel and offsets all his carbon emissions. A spokesperson for Bill Gates said the same — and also that he has invested more than two billion dollars to drive innovation in climate solutions. What are your thoughts about that?

The message of the website is not so much to focus on individual people as much as the greater group. I think that it’s fantastic that they are offsetting emissions and that they are investing in climate research, but … I did not intend the website to focus on those who are having a great environmental impact.

Rather, I think the overall idea is: do people really need to be flying in private jets in this day and age? Even if they are offsetting their emissions, they could still be funding those emission offsets without taking those flights.

What would your message be to the people who fly in the private jets on your list?

My message would be that offsetting is great, but I think also just the reconsideration of whether you need to take those flights. And I think I would like to commend those who are funding climate research, I think that’s fantastic.

You’re in your final year of high school — what are you planning to do after you graduate?

My plan before this came out was definitely to go into a pretty academic physics research career. And since it’s been published, I think my focus is still very much the same. But I’ve also seen that people are really interested in these forms of data analysis, and so I think I would like to pursue in the future similar forms of data analysis and different ways of displaying data with graphic design.

How does it feel to have been getting so much attention for this project?

It feels awesome. It’s pretty crazy to me. If you told me a month ago that I’d be getting these requests or be in the New York Times, I would have thought you’d be crazy. So yeah, it feels great.

Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.